I thought this the appropriate medium and time to address some of the issues that have been discussed about me over the last few weeks as the campaign has now come to its end. I plan to make ONE statement, as clear, concise and complete as possible and be done with it. What the readers of this blog world do with it , is completely up to you, but if I may say, based on catching up with things on The Planet over the past few weeks, I’m sure most of it will be mean spirited and filled with partial truths, few facts, minus any humanity, enough of my preaching, here goes.
First, my relationship with Mr. Valenti. I met Dan thru my father, over a cup of coffee, as more of a meet and greet, friendly get together, we found common interests, in sports, and the like and that led to subsequent casual meetings, one was a radio show about unfunded liabilities, the other gathering for the Pittsfield Colonials ,where we were both invited by different people, at Dan’s favorite roadside eatery, Blantyre. The total number of times we have sat down and spoken is about 5 or 6. Thats the extent of it folks. So if that constitutes that we took some solemn oath to be blood brothers forever to you, then so be it.
Second,the word on the street after our debate was that I, the newcomer, had somehow pulled the strings behind the scenes, when it came to the debate. This again is completely untrue and inaccurate and gives me way too much credit. I am not a member of the Green Party, I ran as an independent. I did not have anything to do with who the Green Party chose as a moderator at all, they told me when and where and I showed up. And I had no idea what to expect from Dan or the debate , just like the other candidates, when I showed up. Whatever due diligence Dan did, he did on his own, thru his own sources , of which I am not privy. In fact, I actually tried to reach out to Dan about 5 days or so before the debate to make him aware of a potential issue of mine that had come out , that I thought he should be aware of as moderator, so he had the facts, AND HE REFUSED TO TAKE THE CALL OR COMMUNICATE BECAUSE HE WASN’T SPEAKING WITH THE OTHER CANDIDATES AND DIDN’T WANT ANY BIAS GOING INTO THE DEBATE.
And as far as my financial standing, again, if you have a problem with someone who is willing to work to no end to keep his house for his kids and put food on the table, then continue to take your childish pot shots, as you have been taking in blog world or if you are man enough,with a shred of integrity then personally reach out to me and I will be glad to take the time to address any of your concerns.
When I purchased my home in Lenox 7 years ago this month, I put 20% down, had an 800 credit score, plenty of savings , no extraneous debt outside of the mortgage and our total household was making in excess of $100,000 per year. More than enough to pay our bills and save for the future. We did extensive renovation, including a “mother in law suite”, famous last words and refinanced twice, but put everything back into our home, including our savings,the only home I have ever owned, to make it a family home. At the time I was doing a mix of general contracting, some real estate sales and had started to do some mortgages, fixed rate only, insurance and some mutual funds and retirement planning and making consistent money. January 1st 2007 we had a major medical issue affect our household, which not only affected the obvious things, but also the family finances as well. That coupled with the dried up construction, real estate and mortgage market made it extremely tough to make money. Now, I did not sit on my butt and blog all day about it, to the contrary, I worked side construction jobs, weekend nights at a restaurant, and evolved my advising practice into more strategic long term retirement planning, as you boomers are the only ones with any money, but of course, most of it was and still is on the sidelines, in fact, a record, $9 trillion or more sits dormant in money markets and CDS, as people work thru their fears of market volatility. But I did whatever I needed to do to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. Again, in a bygone era, this was something that was commended. During this time I entered into troubled loan status with Bank of America. I applied 7 or more times for a modification with them only to be denied. Until the last time, when I was granted a modification with them and am currently in good standing on my way back to being whole. The legal notice in the paper, was a ” Servicemembers Civil Relief Act” notice which is served in troubled mortgages but doesn’t mention the good standing modification, as in a HUGE bank like B of A, one hand doesn’t see what the other is doing. So there it is boys in black and white for your derision, speculation, dart board material, OR your honest assessment of who Eric J Vincelette is as a person. I hope this puts this issue to rest for you. It does for me.
I also wanted to congratulate, David Roche and John McNinch for their victory in the election and thank Kim Flynn for her years of service to the town of Lenox. One thing I am proud of is how hard I worked, how many great people I met and that I feel I drove the issues of unfunded liabilities, health insurance costs, etc. I am only going to be getting more engaged in town going forward. I also think that the fact , whether its old guard, new guard, whatever it is, at least Lenox has a guard of people that care about its town, compared to so many others whose races go unopposed year after year.

Sincerely,
Eric J Vincelette

Mr. Valenti,
On the eve of the Lenox election, and after taking such a large role in that election by hosting a ‘beer hall’ debate at the Lenox Public Library, you then turned mysteriously silent when issues were raised regarding one of the candidates you endorsed.
Why was there zero response from you regarding Eric Vincelette’s recent financial problems when documents surfaced on PlanetValenti the day BEFORE the Lenox election — especially since it was you who, in the words of poster Matt Noves, “grilled (candidate) Roche over a bankrupcy from 20 years ago that Roche was already out of”?

@GMHeller. Please go away. I’m all for free speech, however your tired posts are wearing heavily on me. I no longer read the vitriol posts. We know where your head is at, so to speak, so maybe it’s time to limit yourself to Topix or whatever blog you chose.

@Eric Vincelette. Wonderful explanation, however troublesome that one would have to go to such extremes to defend themselves. This is a private matter that should stay private. It really is no one’s business. Many people in the last few years have fallen into the same trap. Falling valuations, decreased income, illness, etc. You were not looking to manage millons as a treasurer, but to serve as a selectman (a thankless job at best). Good luck in your future endeavors, in and out of the political arena.

Every business loses money in the short-term. Finances are not always growing. Billionaires even lose money. Compounding interest works over the long-term. The envelope “rule of 72” states that the interest yield on your finances divided by “72” equals the number of years your money doubles. So if I earn an interest yield of 6% on $10,000 principal, it will take an estimated 12 years for my money to double. 72/6=12. Over 60 years, my $10,000 will equal $160,000. I may lose money in the short-term, but over the long-term, I will be secure with an equitable savings in my retirement or old-age. The Stock Market may lose money in the short-term, but over the long-term it grows.

I don’t put my name out there sir because I am not a woman who can afford to have my name appear in this type of blog. I have been in Lenox my whole life and from everyone I talked to , Mr Vincelette is a genuine, intelligent, hard working young man, who loves his kids and actually had something to offer our town. But I heard some of townies treated him pretty shabbily, while I KNOW some voted for him over the others, but were afraid to show public support for him after being bullied by the kind of ugly small town politics that happens behind the scenes. It just seems like some people are so twisted that they can’t actually see a decent person when presented with one. I didn’t vote for him cause I’d like to see him get a bit more seasoning but I will say if he toughs it out over the next year, after all the BS he went thru for eveing daring to run, stays and gets more involved I will strongly consider voting for him if he decides to run again. Just because someone is not from Lenox or is having current difficulties doesn’t mean they are bad or incompetent, in fact, I am concerned when a public official, who hasn’t had to tighten his or her belt before or who can’t take a punch is in office because they wilt at the first sign of pressure. With what I have heard about Mr Vincelette and how he reached out to people and how he conducted himself with class , I have no doubt he is intelligent, has guts and is genuine.

@ G M Remember Barry’s famous quote when he was having financial difficulties ”what we have here is a egregemous miscarriagement of taxitude”.